A Venezuelan opposition coalition has been granted permission to contest regional elections in November after a three-year ban, the Venezuelan National Electoral Council said on Tuesday.
The Democratic Unity Roundtable, known by its Spanish-language acronym MUD, has been cleared for “participation in the next elections” for governors and mayors on Nov. 21, council head Pedro Calzadilla said.
In 2015, the MUD won 112 of 167 seats in the Venezuelan National Assembly, giving Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime its biggest-ever defeat.
Photo: AFP / VENEZUELAN PRESIDENCY / JHON ZERPA
However, in 2018, ahead of presidential elections in which Maduro claimed victory, the MUD was disqualified from participating by the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which argued that it was not a political party, but an alliance.
The MUD rejected the 2018 election as a “fraudulent show.”
The international community followed suit and declared Maduro’s victory illegitimate, with dozens of countries recognizing opposition figure Juan Guaido as the country’s president instead.
Tuesday’s announcement came a day after Maduro vowed to respect any opposition victories in the November vote.
This, in turn, came days after the US, the EU and Canada said in a statement that they were willing to “review” sanctions in exchange for a “credible” vote.
“I announce that starting from these elections, I think the best ... is that the one who wins governs,” Maduro said on Monday.
He announced the scrapping of a so-called “protectorate” system he had created in regions where the opposition had won gubernatorial and mayoral races, to effectively usurp their power in favor of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
“We will stop with the protectors for states and municipalities so that the one who wins governs, full stop,” he said at an official ceremony.
In a statement on Friday last week, EU High Representative Josep Borrell, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau said that they were deeply concerned about the ongoing crisis in Venezuela and called for negotiations as well as “credible, inclusive and transparent local, parliamentary and presidential elections.”
The three men said that they were “willing to review sanctions policies based on meaningful progress in a comprehensive negotiation.”
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